Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Spinach

What fabulous weather we've been having for the past 5 days. Bright sun, clear skies, temperatures touching 25^oC (77^oF). Its very unusual for March in Scotland. I am not complaining though.

As I type this post, the weather man is saying that the brief spell of the good weather is coming to an end. Its going start getting cloudy, rainy, gloomy and cold. So much for the good weather. I hope we have a good summer unlike last year when we didn't feel it was summer. It was raining almost everyday.

This is another dish that can be made in a jiffy for a quick snack or a complete meal.This is a slight variation to my Spaghetti Aglio e Olio. I added thawed frozen chopped spinach, increased the amount of garlic and didn’t add the chilli flakes to the oil to make this child-friendly.

It's the peeling and chopping garlic that's time consuming. That's where my son helped me out on this one. Noooo. He didn't sit and peel the garlic layer by layer. I put each clove in the Pestle and Mortar and he would hit it till it crushed. I would take out the "yuck" (his word for the peel) and he would put it in my mini food processor. He then helped me pulse it to a fine chop.

After all that and getting excited at the thought of eating spaghetti, he didn't eat. I actually had to tell him stories and make him eat. He's not able to slurp it up - so I guess he needs more time. P and I enjoyed it with a generous sprinkling of Red Chilli Flakes.

Serves: 2

Ingredients

200 gms Dried Spaghetti (I used Whole Wheat) – cooked in salt water as per package instructions
100 gms Spinach - chopped finely
3 tbsp Chopped Garlic
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Red Chilli Flakes to taste


Method

1. Heat Olive Oil in a pan.
2. When the oil is hot, add the Chopped Garlic and fry until the Garlic starts to change the colour.
3. Add the Spinach and toss till the its cooked.
4. Add the Spaghetti and toss well until it is coated well with the Spinach and Garlic.
5. Add Chilli Flakes, mix and serve hot.

This goes to the following events:
Radhika's Let's Cook #13 - Greens
Srav's Cooking Concepts #8 - Vegan Diet
Kalyani's Holi Fest - Colourful Palette
Krithi's &Denny's Serve it - Stir Fried
Ayeesha's Healthy Morsels - Pregnancy
Srivalli's Kid's Delight hosted this month by Rujuta
Frugal Food Fridays hosted this month by Pigling Bland
Sumee's Bon Vivant Moments #2 - Savoury Items
Chef Al dente's Gimme GREEN
Saint-Patrick Challenge on Very Good Recipes

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

Trust me... This dish is not as complicated as it sounds... This is the simplest Spaghetti dish I've come across. You should find all the ingredients (total of 4 – including oil) in your pantry.

So this is the perfect late night / in-a-hurry snack / meal. I would also say this is a good bachelor / student dish. Easy and quick, its very difficult to get it wrong. Its very satisfying as well.

Enough of the blah blah... here's the recipe:

Serves: 2

Ingredients 
200 gms Dried Spaghetti (I used Whole Wheat) – cooked as per package instructions (See Note)
2 tsp Red Chilli Flakes
2 tbsp Chopped Garlic
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Method

1. Heat Olive Oil in a pan.
2. When the oil is hot, add the Red Chilli Flakes and fry for 30 seconds stirring continuously.
3. Add the Chopped Garlic and until the Garlic starts to change the colour.
4. Add the Spaghetti and toss well until it is coated well with the Chilli Flakes and Garlic.
5. Serve Hot.

Note: To cook spaghetti, bring a saucepan with salted water to a rolling boil. Add in the spaghetti. It doesn't matter if the spaghetti is not immersed fully at the beginning. It will gradually go down. After the spaghetti is immersed in water, cover and cook till its soft. There should still be a bite to it. Strain and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Toss it in 1 – 2 tsp of oil and try to lay it as flat as possible before adding it to the pan.

This goes to Kalyani's 100 day Global Food Festival

Back… with a simple recipe

Hi guys

I got back from the US about a month back but wasn't keeping too well. So I couldn't blog.

I've had migraines forever. Recently, they've been "visiting" me everyday. That's the reason I couldn't blog. I just didn't feel like looking at the computer once I got back. As it is I have to look at the computer all day at work.

The doctor put me on treatment. I also got my eyes checked. I am a bit short sighted now. So I started to wear glasses. Hopefully that'll take care of my migraines as well.

My parents left to India almost immediately after we came back from the US. Before they left, my mother filled up my freezer with her food. So I have yummy food for quiet some time. I do make food every evening though.

I am trying to get back into my routine. So hopefully, I will be back to blogging regularly.

Enough of all this. Let me get to this recipe.

Before I went to the US, I left my herbs with my friends to take care. I told them to use the herbs as and when they need them. They used the Coriander, but the Basil and Mint were "over growing" by the time I got them back.

With the Basil over growing, I decided to trim it and make some pasta sauce.

Here's how I made this simple sauce.

Ingredients:
1 Onion finely chopped
5 cloves Garlic finely chopped
6 tbsp Chopped Tomatoes
2 tbsp Oil
Handful of Chopped Fresh Basil
Salt to Taste


Method

1. Heat Oil in a pan.
2. When hot, add the garlic and sauté till it starts turning brown. Take care it doesn't burn. There's nothing worse than burnt Garlic.
3. Add the onion and saute till golden brown.
4. Add the tomatoes and salt and cook till the tomatoes are done.
5. Add the Chopped Basil, mix well and turn off the heat.
6. Blend to desired consistency.
7. Serve with any kind of pasta.

The taste of fresh basil was absolutely delicious. There's nothing to beat it.

Macaroni & Cheese – Family's Favourite

My first recipe…

I was thinking – What do I post as my first recipe? Last night, when I saw how much P & V enjoyed their Macaroni & Cheese, the answer was very obvious. Macaroni & Cheese had to be my first recipe to post.

I like a simple no fuss recipe. Many people add garlic, herbs and other ingredients. I did try a lot of different versions. But in the end, this is the recipe I stuck to as P & V loved it.

I like make extra sauce and keep it in the fridge so its there for emergency dinners. I usually use it up in 7 – 10 days. If you want it only for the day, you might want to halve the ingredients.

Remember, its totally optional to use the oven. If you have a pan that can go into the oven from the hob, you might want to use that as it saves cleaning up an extra dish.



The final product - close-up

 Ingredients:

4 to 5 fistfuls – Macaroni – boiled in salted water till al-dante, drained
3 tbsp – Butter
3 tbsp – Plain White Flour
500 ml – Whole Milk (you can use semi skimmed – but it wont taste the same)
250 gms – Cheddar Cheese (I use the non-coloured one) – grated
2 to 3 tbsp – Bread Crumbs

Method:

1. Heat the butter in a pan. Once the butter melts, add the flour 1 tsp at a time stirring it all the time so no lumps are formed and the flour doesn’t burn.
2. Start pre-heating your oven to 220 C.
3. Once the flour is cooked / fried (you can tell once the nutty smell starts coming out), add the milk100 ml at a time, stirring briskly so the flour dissolves and no lumps are formed.
4. Let the milk thicken stirring occasionally.
5. Add the cheese 1 fistful at a time – again stirring all the time. Add about 200 gms cheese like this.
6. Once the cheese has melted, let the sauce thicken to the desired consistency.
7. Spread the pasta in an oven proof dish, pour in the required amount of sauce and mix well, sprinkle cheese, then sprinkle bread crumbs and put it in the oven for 30 mins. The crust should be a deep brown and bubbling. 



Before putting it in the oven



This is how I serve my son - his favourite food in his favourite bowl.

 In the last step, if you have made sauce only for the day and are using an oven proof pan, add the drained pasta, mix well, sprinkle cheese on top, then sprinkle bread crumbs and stick it in the oven for a 30 mins.

Alternatively, you can skip the oven bit. It tastes equally good. My son like the plain bit. So we eat the crust and take out the plain bit for him.

Hope you and your family enjoy this as much as we do.

C u soon…